PCB pollution may be reducing mink population

American mink (Neovison vison) populations along New York’s Hudson River are declining, and researchers say it may be due to water pollution. A recent study commissioned by the inter-government Hudson River Natural Resource Trustees found 40 percent fewer minks along the Hudson River, which is contaminated, than the Mohawk River, which is not. In 2015, General Electric removed sediment contaminated by poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the upper river as part of a Superfund project, but the mink study suggests contamination may still be affecting the species.